PARADOX
#3, July 1993

PO Box 643
Saranac Lake NY, 12983

$2.50

Because this issue contains not
only text, but also an audio tape it comes packaged
in a two pocket loose-leaf notebook insert. The text
is narrative poetry and prose poetry for the most part,
with line drawings derived apparently from Pacific
island mythology by Chitra Ganesh. The writing is
interesting and moves well from piece to piece. Bill
Shields contributes several brutally honest pieces
inspired partially by Vietnam, and other afflictions--his
work remains vital because he manages to cultivate
a gallows humor and find life, however bleak, among
the ruins. Susan Nash Smith's piece "from a paleon-tologist's
notebook" is wonderful, a sea of images and ideas
rich with possibility. The audio tape is noise and
voice pieces, some of it quite strong--all of it certain
to fill a room with bizarre atmosphere. At a decent
volume you might even require an exorcist.--Jake Berry